Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Snackadium

What is a snackadium? Why, it’s a stadium built of snacks, of course.

According to the ultimate source – snackadium.com – “Its exact origins are unclear, but historians believe this concept was invented as a way for hosts of Super Bowl parties to force guests to the toilets, achieving the objective of reclaiming prime seats in front of the television.” By many accounts, this novelty first appeared on the hunger/vomit inducing site thisiswhyyourefat.com in June 2010. It received some internet buzz and fan-fare and even made its way into a Bing commercial during football season 2010.

While the craze seemed to die down since its inception, my good friend Nicole and I never forgot the sweet dream of the snackadium. And what better opportunity to erect this memorial to football, yummies and the glutton gods then for our Fantasy Football Draft.

To prep for this feat, first we talked logistics and engineering – how would we support it? How would we separate the “fans” from the “field”? How would we make sure the walls were secure? And just how much food do we really need for this?

Finally deciding we needed a boat (or stadium) load of supplies, Nicole went to work. She was the official procurer of the snacks, and procure she did! This creation calls for many ingredients and to name a few they include: guacamole, salsa and cheese dip (for the field), Slim Jims (goal posts), sour cream (yard markers), Rice Krispie treats (for the retaining walls between the “fans” and the “field”), chips of all kinds (fans), and many, many small sandwiches (for the arena wall).

Putting it together was relatively easy, but time consuming, and it was exciting to see our dream take shape.

We started with a clean (large) space covered in aluminum foil with the “field” pan empty and waiting.

We then surrounded it with the retaining wall of Krispie treats, which I had made the night before in a jelly roll pan (3 boxes of Krispies and 4 bags of marshmallows).

Next, we made the little sandwiches and surrounded the field with them. Careful to space them far enough apart to cover the area, but close enough that they could make a wall and be self supportive.

After that, we slowly and carefully placed the “fans,” aka: chips, in between the inside and outside walls and watched the stadium come to life!

We filled in the field with the proper dippings (homemade guac, salsa and cheese dip) and secured the goal posts into place (thanks to Nicole’s idea of making a cheese-block base).

Then we placed the yard markers with sour cream from a piping bag.

With that, the snackadium was complete and there were many “oohs and ahhhs.”

A real sight, this monster of munchies was just what we were hoping for and the paparazzi were quick to document this feat.

As pictures really don’t to this justice, we tried to put it into perspective and put $20 bills along the length.

Pretty big indeed!

From the sheer size, I never thought our small group of 12 would make a dent on this, but oh what a dent we made!

Phase I consumption:

Phase II:

As we were left with a full retainer wall of Rice Krispie treats, we decided to make some lobster pops for to-go treats (not football related, but fun)!

While Nicole and I vowed that the snackadium was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I can’t stop thinking of bigger and better things to do to it!

Thankfully, the season is young and there will be plenty of more opportunities....